This invention relates to tennis ball markers which apply a marking to a tennis ball for identifying its ownership.
Tennis courts are usually built in groups with several courts located side by side. During a tennis game, a ball in play will often enter an adjoining court. This may result in a disturbance while the tennis ball is recovered and identified and returned to its owner. The problem of identification is increased in the situation, which often occurs, where players have tennis balls of the same brand and color.
While a player may rely on the condition of the ball to claim ownership, this is an unreliable system and may result in controversy when two players have the same brand and color tennis ball. Accordingly, some players mark their tennis balls by the use of pen and ink in some manner to differentiate them from other similar tennis balls. This procedure is unsatisfactory because the ink markings become illegible as the ball wears with use and can smudge and stain clothing, hands, rackets and strings.
Thus, there is in the prior art no satisfactory tennis ball marker which overcomes the problem of identification of intermixed tennis balls of the same brand, color and condition.